Outlook, the magazine that was successful in breaking a virtual India Today monopoly in the newsmagazine market. During its inception in early nineties, it faced stiff challenge from market dominators Indian Today and every major newspaper publication. Moreover, revolution in electronic media had just started with private TV channels in coming in fray. Majority of media analysts predicted that the venture would be unsuccessful.
But Vinod Mehta, the chief editor and owner, defied all prediction and came out triumphant. He hired some of India Today reporters and slowly made inroads in India Today market by brining out weekly editions, against latter’s bi-weekly editions. Outlook forced India Today to reevaluate its habitual way of operation. India Today drastically changed the magazine contents and presentation and started brining out weekly editions. Today, Outlook has rather steady market, which doesn’t increase at the pace it did during its early years.
Regulars:
Vinod Mehta – He edits the magazine and occasionally writes Delhi Diary. Another example where you see more gossips of Delhi’s political circle than analysis. He seldom writes analytical pieces, which are highly impressive albeit highly biased.
Prem Shankar Jha – He can never write anything positive about anybody. Even if his views on economy are closer to right wing, he chooses to claim otherwise. Left parties are his ideals. He famously stated that Sonia Gandhi’s sacrifices were akin to that of
Mother Teresa’s! A perfect Sonia and Left Wing bhakt, his views are hardly neutral.
Movie Reviews – The magazine is published on Fridays and therefore the articles are due on Thursdays. By the time review for a movie is published in the following week’s edition, it would have become rather stale anyway. On top of that the reviewers are far from impressive.
Readers’ Letters – Probably the only unbiased section of the magazine. They do publish letters of contrasting views, sometimes even stinging criticism. Must give them credit where its due but unfortunately it ends here.
I better not waste space writing on their book reviews.
And the Biased Bunch…
Aided and encouraged by their master (Mr. Mehta), Outlook’s team of reporters is one of the worst out there. (And it is not surprising since, those JNU alumnae who dominate the media in India belong to Leftist ideology, which drives their motives and reporting). Outlook’s reporting has always been against right wing in India. They have attacked the right wing with every possible curse in the dictionary (Outlook should go ahead and create a dictionary of curses – will make lot of money). Here are some examples –
1. Recently Allahabad Highcourt (please correct me if I am wrong) ordered Archeological Survey of India to undertake excavation at the disputed Babri Masjid Site to determine if the temple existed there as claimed by the VHP, a party to the dispute. While, the excavation was underway and the report was being prepared, Outlook carried a story claiming it had an ‘inside scoop’ from a trustworthy source that ASI had not discovered any concrete evidences to support the claim that there was temple there. It listed some of the artifacts found and suggested that actually they pointed to the existence of a mosque there. They even went on to claim, albeit indirectly, that ASI is a professional organisation and resists any influence whatsoever by the Government of India.
ASI report came out a few days later and they concluded that the evidences did vaguely support the VHP claim. Suddenly, ASI became a pawn of GOI. It was castigated vehemently. Outlook carried a clever, deceitful story to suggest that ASI report was fabricated and the evidences actually were supporting the existence of a mosque. They carried interviews with the so-called archeological experts, who coincidently were all in agreement Outlook! Not a single expert agreed with ASI, if Outlook story were to be believed.
2. Mr. Mehta himself wrote in his Delhi Diary immediately after Congress government was formed at center that invitations to parties in Delhi’s political circles will increase manifolds now, since he has many ‘friends’ in Congress. Now, here he publicly acquiesced to the open secret. Couple of weeks later, he wrote that although he might have some political allegiances, he doesn’t let it come in his way while editing the magazine to keep his ‘professional ethics intact’. Hilarious Mr. Mehta!
3. Did you read a recent cover story on Shakaracharya case in Outlook? The case is in court and the whole story insinuated theories supporting the ‘professional’ TN police’s claim that he actually is the culprit. The same TN police was unprofessional just yesterday, because of the way Mr. Karunanidhi was treated and ‘suspicious’ manner in which Veerappan was ‘murdered’.
Lack of professionalism:
Despite of tall claims by Mr. Mehta, his magazine is highly devoid of journalistic ethics. The cover story they carried on Reliance imbroglio few weeks ago is a prime example. The story was so disgusting that it brought the two wives in the picture and not only that the film stars like Kareena Kapoor too! They carried story on people’s sex lives and the title line stated- ‘A peep into the bedroom!’. It appears that they hardly undertake thorough fact checks before publishing. Just like Hindustan Times, it has a set agenda and it does whatever it can to further its Leftist agenda.
Do I read Outlook nowadays? Yes but not regularly. I have India Today subscription and my neighbor has Outlook subscription. We used to exchange the magazines. Now, he sure does come to pick up India Today mid-week but I try to avoid Outlook.